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February 10, 2022 8:33 PM

A day for my dad

Today, I

• Took my dad to an appointment with a new doctor.
• Called my dad's former employer to ask about a tax form we haven't received.
• Called two companies to inform them of my dad's doctor's appointment today.
• Researched different tax software to see what would be cheapest and easiest for my dad's tax situation.
• Drove to a Verizon store so my dad could switch to a smartphone.
• Listened to my dad talk about the different exercises he's been trying.
• Went on a walk with my dad.

February 10, 2022 9:26 AM

My mobile app code is on github

Yesterday I took a day of PTO and spent a couple of hours on my mobile app. This is what came out of it:

• It now prevents me from trying to upload an image that will overwrite an existing one.
• It also copies the url of the newly uploaded image to clipboard, which I only included for the purpose of showing this progress video.
• My changes are on github! Hopefully I did it right and saved all the right files and didn't accidentally include any sensitive data.

January 16, 2022 12:23 AM

If anything happens I love you

During the holidays I watched several mostly terrible movies (that I considered adding links for in this blog post, but I don't think that's worth it). For the most part, my mom picked out the movies, but as we were endlessly scrolling through Netflix, one title caught my eye.

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If Anything Happens I Love You is an animated short that follows two grieving parents. I was initially drawn in by the art style, and I appreciate the use of music and (lack of) dialogue. I was reading the Wikipedia page for this film and it included a quote from one of the writers:

From the very beginning it was always going to be an animated film. We just thought a live-action version of this would be way too intense. We thought animation was the perfect gateway to have these deep conversations about loss and grief.

I'm positive there is no way I would have picked to watch this movie if it weren't for the art, so I'm glad they went with this approach, and I'm glad I watched it.

December 31, 2021 2:19 PM

2021

I thought 2020 threw my system out of whack. I had high highs and low lows, but looking back at it, 2020 was pretty chill. Sure, the pandemic started, but at least it forced me to stay home. I didn't have to think about it. I traveled less, and I spent a lot of time with my sister.

2021 was a lot. I had even higher highs and lower lows. I've been so emotional and stressed out this year that it affected my sleep. And I had never had trouble with sleep before. Sleep was something I could count on. But then I had three weeks of barely any sleep, and months of waking up without an alarm. I used to think that being able to wake up without an alarm was a thing to strive for. Now, it's a little comforting to hear it.

But the sleep issues were only the beginning. I got promoted to a managerial position, and then several months later demoted myself. My dad suddenly experienced a lot of pain, and it changed the course of his life, taking up more of my time and headspace than I could have ever anticipated. But I also got to know a really wonderful person by going on lots of walks and eating lots of ice cream. I've learned and fumbled a lot throughout all of this, and I'm still learning and fumbling and flailing.

Sometimes it feels like all of my time is taken up by working, doing chores, running errands, and helping others, and I barely have any time for any of my own projects. But somehow I'm still able to get a few things done for myself. I beat Elite Beat Agents. I finally managed to do a 10 mile run. I learned some Android mobile app programming, and I made an app for my food blog. And every once in a while I make updates to this site.

I usually make New Year's resolutions, but I'm not quite sure I need something to focus on right now. Maybe I'll keep working on the mobile app. Maybe this year I'll finally get back to Programming Pearls or learning Teochew. Maybe I'll get strong enough to do a push up. We'll see.

I'm happy with the past year, and I'm looking forward to the year to come.

December 30, 2021 5:07 PM

I want to make a mobile app: 4

I think this finally does enough